Lord you know it’s a mighty long way
From Sutter’s Mill to Bristol Bay
But the story’s the same and must be told
We lose the land for the glitter of gold

The wagons came in long, long line
To find the gold of ’49
It’s a devil’s deal and we sell our souls
When we trade our riches for the love of gold.

Salmon swim from silver to red
From the bay to the riverbed;
Against the currents of our day
We must save our Bristol Bay.

Now they want to dig a two-mile hole
Right in the heart of Bristol’s soul
Scar the land and foul the stream
Seeking fortune in a golden seam

Slate blue waters — sparkling sun
Home to the last great salmon run
It’s a Bay of life, not a bay of tears
Way of life for ten thousand years

Chasing dollars and corporate greed
Can’t provide all the things we need
Beauty here can’t be bought or sold
We can lose it all — to a lust for gold

Gold can make a million things —
Shiny coins and fancy rings
But it can’t make a river — clean and cold
Don’t lose the land to the glitter of gold

Mountains quake — tides will rise
Winds will shake the angry skies
God made this land — and broke the mold
Don’t lose it all to the power of gold

4th Place
“Absence Of You”
Danielle Knibbe
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

I don’t miss songs I’ve never sung
Or books I’ve never read
I don’t mourn all I’ve left undone
Or the paths I’ll never tread
But I believe though I cannot prove it true
I would feel the absence of you

If we’d never met or said hello
Would a part of me have always known?
I suspect your name is written in the marrow of my bones
After other lips had kissed me
Would I notice something missing?

I don’t miss songs I’ve never sung
Or books I’ve never read
I don’t mourn all I’ve left undone
Or the paths I’ll never tread
But I believe though I cannot prove it true
I would feel the absence of you

In another life, where there was no you and me
And we had settled down with other[s] happily
What if one day on the street our eyes meet accidentally?
Would it hit me like a freight train?
A sudden ache that I could not explain

I don’t miss songs I’ve never sung
Or books I’ve never read
I don’t mourn all I’ve left undone
Or the paths I’ll never tread
But I believe though I cannot prove it true
I would feel the absence of you

For I knew from that first minute
My life was meant to have you in it

I don’t miss songs I’ve never sung
Or books I’ve never read
I don’t mourn all I’ve left undone
Or the paths I’ll never tread
But I believe though I cannot prove it true
I would feel the absence of you